Saturday, June 11, 2005

Ashley's Vet Visit

We had an appointment at 1:40 in the afternoon. Given the ordeal of getting her into the carrier the last time, we decided to leave ourselves about an hour to accomplish it this time.

It took us 30 seconds.

Fortunately, the vet had a cancellation and took us early. We're going to get the bloodwork results tomorrow, but she thinks Ashley's doing well and the digestive thing is probably nothing serious.

She is, however, in need of dental work, something the emergency hospital had not told us in April. This is understandable, since they're a trauma center and their job is limited to determining whether or not your pet's been poisoned, has broken bones or their innards are falling out. You know, an emergency hospital.

So we have to drop her off on Friday morning and pick her up after five. Hopefully, she should be okay for anesthesia. I always worry a little more about Ashley, partly because I'm one of those crazy cat owners. But also it's because Ashley had a bad start in life, and when I say "bad," I mean that when she was first rescued they weren't sure she was going to make it. She was so weak and undernourished that she needed a month's worth of vet work and the home nursing care of a City Critters volunteer before she was healthy enough to be spayed.

She's still a little smaller than average. For one thing, she's got the smallest head of any cat I've ever seen. It's like a weasel's head. But her face is beautiful. She was a little plumper when we got her than she is now, but this is because in foster care she loved dry food, which is carb-heavy, whereas in this house any cats get the higher-protein canned plus an occasional crunchy thing for a treat. So it's sort of like the kitty version of Atkins.

Whenever I meet a City Critters volunteer and I mention Ashley, the volunteer will always respond "Oh, you have Ashley!" as if we've won a prize. Which we have. And hopefully, good food, good vet care and a lot of love will keep her going for a long time.